Category Archives: Writing thoughts

Writing a True Story

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As well as writing my fiction, I am working on a true story. It is that of my godfather who was born in 1919 and lived well into his 80s. Uncle Bob, as I called him, was gay and wanted everyone to know his story, so when I was in the UK several years ago now, I recorded him telling his lie story, and later, started transcribing it. I am now working on a version for publication (eventually), and today, I thought I would share the opening with you.

I have checked and amended certain facts as best I can (because his memory of all those years ago may not have been accurate), but other than that, the text is written more or less as he spoke it.

Here’s the first page.

Tooting           1919 – 1933

When I was born in 1919, our house was worth 100 pounds. Fourteen years later, I was earning that amount each week as a rent boy in Piccadilly.

Three things happened to me between 1919 and 1933 that had a lasting effect on my life. I look back on them now as defining moments, but at the time they were more than that. I suppose you might call them revelations. I didn’t realise at the time what exactly they meant to me, only that they were important. But now, recalling the 85 years of my life, I can place them in the order of things, and understand their significance.

They were small events at the time but things which shaped the way I approached my life – a life that took me from the house of my birth in Tooting, to the West End of London when I was still only thirteen, and from there to Wormwood Scrubs, the Royal Navy, the Mediterranean and the Pacific, and then back to London where, in the course of my professional duties, I was to meet politicians, religious leaders and royalty. They are the first things that I remember encountering on my path through almost a century of gay life – a century that saw the world change rapidly. Television, telephones, computers and gay rights were not even things of science fiction when I was born.

But what are these three clear-as-a-bell memories from an early twentieth-century childhood? They are more than just recollections of a post-First World War life in south London. They are not just snapshots of a life lit by gaslight, when boys went to school barefoot, and Mr Gilman walked ahead of the horse-drawn funeral carriage, stopping the traffic. I am certain they are not parts of dreams that come back to me in old age, tricks played on the mind by my four score years and five. These moments are as real to me now as they were then. It is as if I can reach out my hand and touch my own history, like Alice putting her hand through the looking glass and reaching into another world. Only, when I do it I am touching another time.

I can still see the group of ex-servicemen, wearing women’s clothes and pushing a barrel organ along our street.

I can still feel the older man’s hand touching mine.

I can still remember the moment another boy kissed me for the first time, and I realised what was different about me.

These are the three most prominent moments in my memory of a childhood in Tooting. But they are not the only ones.

Tooting High Street, 1919. Looking south towards Colliers Wood with what’s now the @themanortooting
on the right, Longley Road on the left. Photo from Tooting Newsie on X

Beginnings

My birth was the result of the Great War, although not the only result, of course. Far more important matters were taking place in the world at that time, but on November 12th, 1919, a year and a day after the fighting had stopped, and London was beginning to return to normality, I was delivered into my parent’s front room. More precisely, I sloshed out into the world in the safe hands of Mrs Allen, the formidable, fat midwife who delivered all the children in the street. Like some matronly earth mother, she was also the one who laid out the dead, often before the doctor arrived; if the doctor arrived at all. She was a central character in Gambole Road, Tooting, whereas I was just another post-war baby.

Gambole Road was typical of its time; a side street of terraced houses, dimly lit at night by gas burners. Each lamp was hand lit at dusk by the man whose job it was to walk the streets and ensure that we had light. There were three families living in our building, number 30. The house had three floors, one family on each, and like most houses at that time it was rented. It was quite common for one landlord to own several properties in a street, as ours did. He was a local decorator and kept his houses in good repair, investing some of his rental income back into them.

Academic romance novels promo collection – click and rowse

Logogram or Logotype, but Logo is out

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You know how I research words as best I can so that I don’t put anachronistic words into the mouths of my 19th-century characters? Well, I’ve been doing it again. If you’ve read this blog over the years you will know I sometimes talk about words I can’t use because they weren’t in general usage in 1888 to 1892 when my series are set, words like okay, paperwork, acerbic, or even acidic. If I’m not sure, I go and look the word up in a dictionary or use the online one which tells me when the word was first found in printed material. That’s usually a reasonably accurate indication of when the word was also spoken, but there are things to bear in mind. A) words are often spoken for a while before they are accepted into a dictionary, so the date shown is probably slightly earlier, and B) this online dictionary has a bent towards when the word was first used in America, and the date might be slightly different for Britain.

Anyway…

I was writing a chapter for ‘Where There’s a Will,’ and one of the clues involved the publisher’s logo on the spine of a book. Logo…? Off I go to look it up, and sure enough, it was hardly used until the 1950s. I can’t use logo, but these things must have had other names, so I turned to a friend of mine who knows about such things and this is how the email exchange went.

‘What was a publisher’s logo called before the word logo came about, any idea?’ I asked, and clarified with, ‘The Penguin symbol on penguin books, for example, is there a better or older word for one of those things, other than logo? I think they were called logograms or logotypes, and logo is an abbreviation – just wondered if you knew of any other word for them.’

My books don’t have a logo

This was his reply.

Interesting question, to which I don’t actually know the answer.

I know the word logotype has a specific history in printing. It was something printers used to save time when making up common words. Typesetting was all about making up text from individual letters cast in metal or made of wood. Some bright spark hit on the idea that for certain common words it would be quicker to cast the whole word as one piece of metal or wood. For example, in newspaper printing, the word that made up the paper’s title on the front page could be cast as one big block of text. And these word blocks were called logotypes.

But the modern concept of the logo symbol really goes back to heraldry and beyond. People had their crests and devices, and shops and inns had their signs.

So my guess would be that in the 19th century, people would refer to signs, devices, crests, symbols, marks, and that kind of thing. Goldsmiths and silversmiths had marks which were stamped on their wares. With the advent of industrial-scale advertising, you get companies like Coco Cola designing their name in a specific font that would have been cast as logotypes for printing purposes. The Coca-Cola logo is a word and therefore originated as an authentic logotype.

From my shelves

But I don’t think the word logotype would have been in common use outside of printing circles in the 19th century, and ordinary people would have referred to anything that was a symbolic representation of a trade, product, organisation, person, as a crest, or a device, or a sign, or a mark, as appropriate. Possibly symbol. You don’t really get the catch-all word “logo” until major advertising takes off in the early 20th century. And as you say, it was probably the abbreviated form of logotype getting into popular use, because these symbols would have been cast as a single block for printing.

I think these days they differentiate between logotype, still basically a word block, and logogram, which is a symbol. The Penguin would be a logogram. Since the company was founded in the 1930s the word used for the symbol would have been logo or logogram.

Well, I found it interesting. I also had to find another way to describe what my character was seeing, because even the self-educated genius, Will Merrit, would not have used the word logogram.

More books in the study – I need more shelves!

Will it Work?

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This week’s update: I am now at 55,000 words of ‘Where There’s a Will’ and the story is progressing. For the last three days I have been rereading what I have written so far, and today, I’ll be moving forward again, having checked up on myself. This is one of those mysteries with lots of detail, some of which isn’t relevant (to the mystery) but which act as red herrings, and I need to be sure that a) there aren’t too many, and b) those that are genuine clues are pointed enough to remain in the memory without overpowering it.

What I mean: When laying down a clue for the detective to pick up on later, like when laying down the foundations of what will become the smoking gun, it’s important to ensure the evidence has been presented in a plausible but not over-obvious way.

There is an old thriller writing saying which goes something like: Don’t mention a revolver unless you intend to use it. In other words, if you introduce something big, make sure there’s a reason for it. So, in ‘Where There’s a Will’, I have several incidents from the characters’ pasts which either have to be relevant to the plot generally or important to the mystery specifically. Some of these ideas pop into my head as I am writing, and thus, get added into the story. Later, I might discover that they didn’t run, or they led nowhere, and interesting as they are, and relevant though they seemed at the time, they are now just clutter and have to go.

Which is what I have been doing these past few days. Now, I am about to leap back into chapter 18, which is a little over halfway, when the mystery has just kicked up a gear. I need to devise my next cryptic clue, put in some more backstory to deepen suspicion and have my cast prepare for a storm, both meteorological and metaphoric.

Red Herring. According to Study.com, The term ”red herring” comes from an article written by a journalist in 1807. He described a likely fictional story in which he used a red herring (a smoked herring) to distract a dog from a hare. The term caught on from there.

The smoking gun. The phrase originally came from the idea that finding a very recently fired (hence smoking) gun on the person of a suspect wanted for shooting someone would in that situation be nearly unshakable proof of having committed the crime. (Wiki.)

Or, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it in ‘The Adventure of the Gloria Scott’: We rushed on into the captain’s cabin, but as we pushed open the door there was an explosion from within, and there he lay wit’ his brains smeared over the chart of the Atlantic which was pinned upon the table, while the chaplain stood with a smoking pistol in his hand at his elbow.

A selection of Historical Fiction on Kindle Unlimited – the promo runs all month

The Blake Inheritance

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I am currently writing ‘Where There’s a Will’, the Delamere Series book four, and have just written a chapter involving a lighthouse. This reminded me of another of my older, stand-alone novels which also features a lighthouse.

The Blake Inheritance has the following blurb:

“Let us go then you and I, to the place where the wild thyme grows.”

An inheritance, a ring and a church organ; three clues to the Blake family mystery. Twenty-five and fleeing a stale relationship, Ryan Blake returns home to find some answers. What he discovers is the impish twenty-two-year-old, Charlie Hatch, a homeless scamp who has a way with words, a love of mysteries, and a very cute arse. As the two set about unlocking the Blake family secrets, Ryan finds himself falling for the younger guy. But is he ready to commit again? And can Charlie learn to accept that someone loves him?

The lighthouse is where the climax of the story happens, the unlocking of the mystery and where the two main characters get a little closer – as far as I remember. It’s been a while since I read it. It’s a mystery set in the present day and concerns two guys from the same town and school. One of them, Charlie, is fond of mixing his quotes, hence the line:

“Let us go then you and I, to the place where the wild thyme grows.”

This one is a mix of TS Eliot (The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock):

Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table;

And Shakespeare, (A Midsummer Night’s Dream):

I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Charlie comes out with others throughout the book, but not relentlessly, because I couldn’t think of that many good ones. I think there’s something like ‘Come into my parlour said the owl to the pussycat,’ or similar in there somewhere. I wanted to make Charlie quirky (maybe even a bit creepy at times), and Ryan, far more sensible and grown up for his age.

Pleasingly, I received good feedback about this standalone, with some people asking if I was going to create a series with these two characters investigating other mysteries. I started writing a book two, but didn’t feel it had legs. (Not long after, I started on Deviant Desire, and that world and those characters certainly had/have legs. Three series, a total of 21 books with another one on the way.) ‘Blake’ has received some negative stars – there’s someone who invariably gives my books only one star, usually only half an hour after I post the new title, which makes me suspect, they didn’t buy it. But there have also been some good reviews, including:

“This is an amazing piece of writing which has everything in it.”

“I just finished reading this book. I just wouldn’t put it down until I finished it.”

“The more I read, the more I was gripped.”

Maybe those words were about one of my others, as this is very much an ‘early work,’ and tbh, I write much better prose these days. Still, it sells copies now and then, it’s a sweet little romance with an intriguing mystery, and it’s all yours for as little as $3.99 -= or ‘free’ on Kindle Unlimited.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C84C13Z

Follow the Van Cover Reveal

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Hello everyone,

In case you’ve not read the newsletter…

Best Friends to Lovers Promo with Book Funnel

I have a novel in a promo that’s running from 20th March to 24th April, so there’s plenty of time for you to browse the books on offer. As this promo is very clearly Best Friends to Lovers, I’ve put in my ‘The Students of Barrenmoor Ridge.’ This is a YA tale, mainly, about two BFs going hiking together, getting into trouble and needing the help of characters you may have met in ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge.’ (It doesn’t matter if you haven’t, you can still enjoy The Students of…) The promo is for all levels of ‘heat,’ so you never know what you might find.

To explore more, simply click the link and take a look at the many books on offer. Click a cover to find more info (and get me brownie points for sharing), and enjoy discovering new authors and titles.

Promo Link Click Here or click the images

Follow the Van

While you are merrily clicking things, click on my Jackson March Amazon page and in the next few days you will see you can download or order the next Delamere Files novel, ‘Follow the Van.’ As I write this, I am just waiting for the last of the files to come through from my design team, and then I can upload everything and publish the book. I’m hoping to do this on my birthday next Tuesday.

Here’s the blurb to keep you going, and if you want to see the full cover before the book is published, click the link at the end of this page.

Follow the Van
The Delamere Files book three

Success in this business isn’t about what you know, it’s about what you don’t know.

When the eligible Eddy Hawkstone enlists Jack Merrit’s services to recover a stolen book, it seems like a straightforward task. However, the clues lead Jack into the turbulent world of the music hall, where he uncovers the unnerving tale of his father’s death at the feet of Marie Lloyd.

Desperate to prove himself to his mentor, Jimmy Wright, Jack finds himself entangled in a web of sexual temptation, loyalty, and fraternal bonds, all while grappling with his emotions for Larkin Chase.

To triumph, Jack must confront the shadows of his past and embrace the realities of the present. The path is fraught with danger and self-discovery and leads him to a twisting theatrical climax worthy of a melodrama.

Follow the Van is the third book in the Delamere Files series. The books should be read in order.

And now the cover…
Another triumph from Andjela, click the Merrit brothers to see the full cover of Follow the Van which you can start reading in the next couple of days.

The Clearwater Mysteries: Opening Lines

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Today, I thought I’d put up the first paragraph(s) of each of the Clearwater Mysteries, plus a link to the book’s Amazon page. If the series is new to you, you can find out some more info about each book from The Clearwater Mysteries page, and the link is in the menu.

First, here’s a reminder of a promo that’s running via Book Funnel. Historical mystery, action, adventure, and a few select titles and authors you may not have tried before. Click the pic to see the full list.

And now, the opening chapters of each of the 11 Clearwater books starting with the prequel (which isn’t really a mystery).

Andrej

Late summer, 1881
Serbka, Ukraine

Andrej waited until the darkest hour before he untied his wrists with his teeth, and freed his feet from the knots. Leaving the children to their troubled dreams, he slipped silently from beneath the cart, and crawled towards the older men and widows sleeping beneath the trees. Alert, he fixed his eyes on Blumkin. The man had taken his knife, and Andrej was not leaving without it.

Silas Hawkins was searching for coins in an East End gutter when a man four miles distant and ten years older sealed his fate. Silas had no idea that the discussion taking place concerned him, or that it was even happening. He wouldn’t know the details for some time, but even if he had heard the conversation, he wouldn’t have believed it. It wouldn’t have concerned him if he had, because Silas wasn’t the kind of youth to shy from a challenge, not even one that might threaten his life.

James Joseph Wright was born on January 10th, 1863 at the precise moment the world’s first underground train delivered its passengers to Farringdon station. As the locomotive puffed and fumed from the tunnel, James’s mother, some four miles distant, puffed and fumed through her own first delivery.

The Times, Thursday, December 1st, 1888
Opera House Gala

Famed countertenor, Mr Cadwell Roxton is to make his debut appearance at the Opera House in “Aeneas and Dido”, an acclaimed if unusual work by Austro-German composer, Johann Bruch.
Mr Roxton was the sensation of the 1887 Paris season, following that triumph with another in Leipzig the subsequent spring. His debut at our opera house this month will herald the beginning of what this publication hopes will be an illustrious career on the opera stage for a countryman returning home from his studies after training in the conservatoires of Europe.

On the night of December 17th, 1888, a stinging north wind buffeted the city forcing all but the bravest to stay in their homes. Whether that home was a dosshouse in the East End or a villa abutting Saint Matthew’s Park, whatever protection could be found from shutters and curtains was employed to keep back the icy blasts. The day dawned with a silvery sky, but the weak winter sun stood no chance against the mass of heavy cloud that rolled in from the north to swamp the entire country before delivering, in parts, blankets of snow and ice. By the evening, livestock had frozen in their stables, the mainline railways became impassable, and in the darker, unwanted parts of the city, thirty-two deaths occurred before nightfall “From ill weather”.

Folkestone Harbour, April 1889

As he waited for his visitor to arrive, Benjamin Quill squinted at the society pages of the national newspaper with his one good eye. It was an edition from the previous week, but he didn’t require the news to be up to date, knowing that once such an announcement was made, it would remain unchanged, barring serious accident or death. Last year, he had suffered the former, and that had led him to plan the latter. Not his own death, of course, and not that of Clearwater, that delight would come in time.

London, July 1889

Henry Beddington had served as the concierge at the National Gallery since 1865 and took great pride in the fact that, despite the large number of visitors passing through its doors each day, there had never been any trouble in his foyer. Keeping watch over the entrance from his counter on a sunny morning in July, he had no reason to suspect that today would be any different.

27th July 1889. Kingsclere House, Hampshire

Jasper Blackwood’s life changed beyond recognition on the morning of 27th July 1889. The previous night, he had gone to bed unaware of correspondence exchanged between a viscount and a footman, a butler and a housekeeper. As he fell exhausted onto his straw mattress in his basement anteroom, he fully expected to wake at six, and set about the next day’s duties exactly as he had performed every day for the last seven years.
It was not to be.

Clearwater House, London
September 1889

Jasper’s eyes were on the clock while his hands frantically polished Lord Clearwater’s riding boots, but his mind was on Billy and an organ recital. Beyond the boot room, the clattering in the kitchen told him Mrs Roberts was rushing to stock the pantry and fill the cold shelves, the persistent clip of Harvey’s shoes passing back and forth told him the cases were coming down to the coach, and a proclamation from Mr Payne left no doubt there were only fifteen minutes left before the viscount was due to leave.
Throwing down the buffing cloth, he carried the now gleaming boots into the servants’ passage in time to meet Harvey returning from the yard.

The Pall Mall Gazette, Fourth Edition
December 4th, 1889

THE INFLUENZA EPIDEMIC.
Two London Cases.

Thousands of sufferers in Berlin.

Something very like the influenza epidemic which is raging in St. Petersburg has now spread to Berlin, and thousands are down with it.
The epidemic is (a Helsingfors telegram says) still spreading. Everybody one meets has either had or is expecting to succumb to the malady. Editors apologise for the delay in issuing their newspapers, and the scanty news in them. Letters remain undelivered, the postmen being sick. Offices are closed for want of clerks. The illness is preceded by two or three days of lassitude. Then fever breaks out at half an hour’s notice, and increases rapidly for six or eight hours, and is accompanied by delirium, headache, a swelling sensation in the joints, irritation of the throat, pain in the limbs, and a teasing cough.

Rasnov Castle, Transylvania

January 1890

Snow whipped the ancient fortification, caught in the vicious gusts of an unforgiving north wind. Stolen from the pine forests and thrown across the plain, it swirled against the castle walls where it collected in fissures and made its home, there to wait for spring before releasing its glacial grip. Some gathered in the arrow slits and window recesses, clinging to the bars and caking the shutters. Flurries torn from the masonry were buffeted to the roof, coating the tiles in peaks as jagged as the surrounding Carpathians, and some found their way through the rotting wood and mortar cracks to dust the sills and embrasures.

You can find all the books from the Clearwater Series page on Amazon.

December Book Promo

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Queer Reads Book Promo

Hello, everyone

This is just a quick newsletter update to let you know of another book promo I’m taking part in all through December. This time, it’s a ‘Queer Reads’ promo with loads of titles on special offer and up for some attention, and all titles are, in some way, a ‘gay’ story.

I’m more than delighted to be in the company of some author friends, including some who have appeared on my blog. Check out the titles from Rebecca Cohen, Beck Grey, K.C. Carmine, and Glenn Quigley, among others. Head to the Queer Reads Promo page, and you’ll find plenty of titles to choose from, some reduced in price. It looks like there are some Christmas stories, MM Romance, Sci-Fi, thrillers, and general gay lit, as well as some historical mysteries.

Mind you, three of the historical mysteries are from me, with Deviant Desire, Guardians of the Poor, and Finding a Way on the list. These are the series starters for my three series of Victorian mysteries.

And while we’re on that subject, this is your last chance to get a free copy of my Christmas feel-good volume of shorts, ‘1892.’  Join my Facebook Group, Jackson’s Deviant Desires and in the next couple of weeks, everyone there will be able to take a free e-copy of this new set of short stories set in the Clearwater world of 1892.

‘1892’ will be on sale before Christmas and makes for a warm aside from the usual struggles of the Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere books as five characters from those stories share a train journey from London to Cornwall on Christmas Eve 1892.

What with that, and with the Queer Reads promo taking place, you’re well positioned to stock up on Christmas reading, so I’ll take this opportunity to wish you an early Season’s Greetings, and leave you with the link to the book promo, which you can find here:

https://books.bookfunnel.com/queerreads/a46ac0114v

Jackson Marsh

1892: Cover Reveal

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The other day, I dropped off the blurb for the new book, and in the meantime, I had a friend read the MS, because she’s a writer of short stories, whereas, I usually prefer to write novels. ‘1892, The Clearwater Tales, Volume One,’ is my first foray into short stories apart from those I have written for adult sites and magazines. As they tend to be 20% story and 80% nookie, I don’t really count them. I don’t talk about them much, other than to say, I do them as a means to a financial end, and would much rather write my historical mysteries and some romance/adventure novels.

Anyway, my friend used to work as a reader for a large London publishing house. One of those poor souls who have to deal with manuscripts from hopeful authors looking for publication. She has told me about the job, and what it entailed, and it’s not all about reading a few chapters and saying yes or no, she also worked in editing and entertaining potential authors, and she did the job for long enough to know good writing from bad. So, I was cheered to receive her thoughts on ‘1892.’ Her message included this:

Have read the short stories. A nice warm Christmas read, particularly for your loyal readers but you have managed to make it perfectly understandable for anyone new. It’s a lovely picture of that luxurious but cosy first-class carriage puffing down to snowy Cornwall with all mod cons and lashings of food.

That was good to read from a professional reader, and she summed up the overarching story of the book perfectly. Seven characters on a train heading for Cornwall for Christmas Eve. Within that are six stories, five told by the characters you see on the cover, and the other being the wrap-around story from the point of view of the stranger who is travelling with them.

To view the cover, click on the picture below and it should open separately. You will see who the cast is. From left to right you have: Joe Tanner, the antiquarian, Mrs Norwood, the housekeeper (here modelled by my friend, Jenine), Professor Fleet (as depicted by my husband, Neil), Andrej (Fecker), the baron, and Will Merrit, the detective.

I’ll have more news about the release and how you can get a free e-copy in a future post and on my Facebook page and group. The freebie is for group members only, so check out and join Jackson’s Deviant Desires to know when and how you can have a free e-copy. Meanwhile, here’s the full cover. Click the pic.

What’s in a Name? How to Find the Perfect Book Title.

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I’m struggling… Well, I’m not struggling, I’m just undecided what to call my Clearwater short story collection that I am planning to bring out before Christmas. I’ve contacted Andjela with ideas about the cover, and she has begun work on the image. I was able to give her my visual ideas, and a subtitle, but not the actual title, and she’ll need it soon. So far, I have:

Untitled

The Clearwater Tales Volume One

Jackson Marsh

Obviously, we need more than that, so I thought it was time I reminded myself of what makes a good title for a book, and for that purpose, I turned to the New York Book Editor’s checklist of tips for creating a good book title.

Remember, your book title is one of the most important marketing tools and can draw in a reader or send them away. Therefore, a good book title needs to have key elements. One of my favourite titles is ‘Deviant Desire’, so I’ve taken the NYBE’s list of recommendations and compared them to that book, the first in the Clearwater Mysteries series. These notes are my observations of my own work, and I might be overblowing my own trumpet, but here goes…

Attention grabbing.

Deviant is a ‘power word’ as they call attention-grabbing words. Mind you, Desire is also pretty provocative because it suggests sex, while Deviant suggests naughty or illicit sex, so ears are already pricking up.

Easy to understand
It’s only two words, and sums up what might have been a book title in the days the story is set (1888). ‘Men with Unnatural Desires who are Considered Deviants Battle with another Deviant Intent on Killing Them.’ (Victorian writers were known for being over-wordy, and that extended to titles in some cases.)

Easy to remember
I suggest Deviant Desire is easier to remember than ‘Men with Unnatural Desires who…’ It’s also alliterative, a trick which aids memory.

Unique
I always run a check through Amazon and Google to see if my book title already exists. Sometimes it does, but the other book is completely off my topic, even so, I might think about changing it. Sometimes, my title is also the name of a music album or something else, but as long as I am not aping the brand or product, it’s acceptable.

For the current work in progress, I wanted to call the book, ‘My Old Man,’ because the story concerns the Victorian music halls and that is a famous line from a famous music-hall song which just happens to relate to much of the story. However, it’s also the title of an autobiography by the British former Prime Miniter, John Major, so I changed my title to ‘Follow the Van.’ That’s from the same song, ‘My old man said follow the van…’ and it’s also appropriate to the story. Phew!

Fits genre

Deviant Desire fits the genre of MM romance with a little light steam (Desire), and Victorian mystery (Deviant). My problem has always been staying in one niche, which is why I write mashups. Actually, I did it because they are more novel (get it?) and more original than traditional MM romances. ‘My Favourite Boy,’ ‘Hid Daddy’s Best Friend’, and ‘College Jock After-Game Love-In’ might be suitable for trad MM romance; Deviant Desire, though, does not suggest a budding romance between a shy teenager and the high school gym coach. I hope.

More appropriate to my story, the word ‘Deviant’ was one used in the past to describe gay men and gay sex. Homosexuals were deviants, and that theme continues in the following books which also use words for gay men in their titles. ‘Twisted’ Tracks, ‘Unspeakable’ Acts. (The phrase was often used in newspapers when reporting court cases of gross indecency.) ‘Fallen’ Splendour, as the word Fallen referred to prostitutes.

Simple

Yes, well, it’s only two words. Deviant Desire. Yet they refer to the (then) deviant behaviour of one man loving another, as well as the villain’s deviancy in murdering people, and the couple’s desire to love, plus the villain’s desire to kill.

Series and sequels

As mentioned, I used similar word combinations in the following three books, all of which have an adjective followed by a noun. Twisted Tracks, Unspeakable Acts, Fallen Splendour. I was going to end things there, but (luckily) carried on, and the titles then changed.

When it came to the second series, The Larkspur Mysteries, I was more aware of my titling and went for similar wordplay combinations.

Guardians of the Poor. That’s what those who ran the workhouses were called, and it is what the two main characters are doing; they are paupers guarding the welfare of themselves and other paupers.
Keepers of the Past. The ‘keepers’ are antiquarians (archaeologists), and that is what Joe is becoming, while the villain is keeping to the rites and killings of his tradition’s past.

Agents of the Truth. This refers to the investigators, archaeologists (who uncover the truth), and those who deliver the facts to solve a case.

I could go on, and I usually do, but I think the point is made.

Provocative
Hopefully, the words Deviant and Desire work together to provoke a sense of illegality mixed with longing.

The original cover for Deviant Desire. Note the original title.

Also…

This short post wasn’t intended as a way for me to say how perfect my titles are, because like all things in writing, a title can always be improved; at least until you get to the point where fiddling any longer will ruin it.

Just to prove I’ve not always been good at titles, the original title for Deviant Desire was going to be Deviant Lamplight. Say what? What does the lamp light do to make it deviant? Creep unseen from its carriage-lantern casing, and, entwined with the mist of East London, find its way into people’s homes and steal their candles?

Now there’s an idea for a fantasy novel…

For more chat about book titles, try my two previous posts:

What’s in a Title?

Making Your Book Titles Count

Non-strangers on a Train

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Last week, I came up with the idea of producing a collection of short stories as a freebie for my readers. I asked for suggestions via my FB page, my group, and my blog, and I’ve now had several replies. I’ve also worked out the premise, and have gathered my five characters together on the 11.45 train from London to Cornwall, on Christmas Eve 1892.

I chose that date to fit in with the current Delamere series (which is so far set in 1892) and to follow on from the Larkspur series, which finished on Christmas Eve, 1891. We will get an update on what’s happening at Larkspur Hall, because that is where the five characters are heading, and they are heading there for the famous Larkspur Christmas Ball. This event was featured in ‘Fallen Splendour’ and then again at the end of ‘The Larkspur Legacy,’ and it’s the occasion when Lord Clearwater treats all his staff, tenants and their families to a lavish party in the great hall at Larkspur.

Here’s a rather obvious clue to one of the characters.

On the journey, each of the five characters will tell a story from their past, and so far, I have decided on one of these stories, but I still need to invent the other four. However, there will be another, a sixth in total, because although my characters are travelling in a private carriage, they are not alone. Someone else has gained a seat, but as he is sitting quietly at the back and is asleep, they decide to let him stay. Being Clearwater characters, they also suggest he might like to share in the supplies they have brought with them for the eight-hour journey if he wakes up.

Who this character is, and what he is doing there will be explained at the end of the book, which I intend to be reasonably short. I am guessing at around 50,000 words, but knowing me…

So far, I have an outline for the various chapters, and I’ve put it here so you can see who is on this journey. You’ll also see that I’ve modelled the index at least on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, but the text will definitely not be made up of long poems in Olde English!

May 1892

Here’s who will be appearing in the index, and I’ll keep you posted on the progress of this project and ‘Follow the Van’ (Delamere part three) as the weeks roll on towards Christmas, when anyone subscribed to my newsletter and any members of my group Jackson’s Deviant Desires will get a Pdf copy for free. The book will later be on sale via the usual channels. (Anyone can subscribe to my occasional newsletters, and to my group, just follow the links.)

The Christmas Journey (not the eventual title)

The Prologue – In which five characters meet and a stranger takes note.
The Detective’s Tale*
The Baron’s Tale
The Housekeeper’s Tale
The Antiquarian’s Tale
The Professor’s Tale
The Stranger’s Tale – In which all is revealed and yet nothing is completely ended.
The Epilogue

As you can see, each chapter will also have a sub-heading in the style of Victorian serialisations. I’ve always wanted to do this, ‘In which we discover…’ kind of chapter heading, but it’s so outdated, that it’s never yet fit with anything I’ve written. Now’s my chance!

* Btw, although James Wright was a popular suggestion, he is not the detective in this case. I have gone for Will Merrit so that we have two Clearwater characters, two Larkspur characters, and one from the new series. You can probably guess who the others are.

There were many suggestions and my aim is to include some or all of the other suggestions within the stories, though they are not the ones telling them. So, you should get a Christmas dose of your favourite characters one way or the other.

As for the stranger… You will have to wait and see.